In the past I've played around with both a Francotte and a Gahendra Martini from the Nepal cache but they left a lot to be desired from a shooting standpoint. So I decided to go all in and get the real thing.

This is a British 1887 Mk. IV.I. Martini. It is in great condition with a really good bore and the original cleaning rod. There are two markings that might be serial numbers. One says PAK (RAR?) 494 and the other is H 226. All the bits and pieces have British markings on them.

There are a couple of rack numbers on the left side of the butt. On the right side is a roundel with the name of the Rawulpindi, India arsenal. Perhaps this came from the Nepal cache too. The buttstock has been converted from a short lever Martini as can be seen by a plugged hole where the cup for the end of the lever used to be. There are also 2 plugged holes near the toe of the butt that were probably once a sling swivel.

I got a nice repro. sling from World War Supply.

I have the ammo. loaded and hope to get to the range next week.

No one warned me but you can seriously pinch your fingers with that long lever.

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Last edited by nrobertb on Tue Jun 20, 2017 11:25 pm, edited 2 times in total.

I'm using some 450 grain paper patched to .470 I purchased years ago. Made by a company called Blue Falcon Bullets. I purchased two hundred and down to my last box. I load these with 65 grains of Goex 2F cotton ball and grease cards.

There is a youtube video by Iraqveteran8888 on loading the Martini. He used .468 lubed bullets from Blue Falcon because he didn't want to fool around with paper patching. I just got a box of these from Gunbroker and loaded them up. I'll be trying them at the range this week, They stretch the necks quite a bit from where they come out of my Lee resizing die and I was worried about neck splitting, but fortunately it didn't happen.

Just loaded 20 rounds for a friends Martini, used a 485 gn bullet which measures at .462 diameter. Used a 45/70 load specs for a trap door for 5744 powder.
I make it a practice to anneal before every loading on this brass, had the misfortune of splitting 5 out of 20 when I fired the rounds when I didn't, an expensive learning experience.